The gods have sent medicines for the venom of serpents, but there is no medicine for a bad woman. She is more noxious than the viper, or any fire itself.
~ in Andromache

Man’s greatest tyrants are his wife and children.
~ in Oedipus

Man’s best possession is a sympathetic wife.
~ in Fragments, no. 164

No man is wholly free. He is slave to wealth, or to fortune, or the laws, or the people restrain him from acting according to his will alone.
~ in Hecuba

Plain and unvarnished are the words of truth.
~ in The Phoenissae

The facts speak for themselves.
~ in Fragments

There are three classes of citizens. The first are the rich, who are indolent and yet always crave more. The second are the poor, who have nothing, are full of envy, hate the rich, and are easily led by demagogues. Between the two extremes lie those who make the state secure and uphold the laws.
~ in The Suppliants

Along with success comes a reputation for wisdom.

Among mortals second thoughts are wisest.

Better a serpent than a stepmother!

But learn that to die is a debt we must all pay.

Chance fights ever on the side of the prudent.

Cleverness is not wisdom.

Danger gleams like sunshine to a brave man’s eyes.

Do not plan for ventures before finishing what’s at hand.

Events will take their course, it is no good being angry at them; he is happiest who wisely turns them to the best account.

Fortune truly helps those who are of good judgment.

Happiness is brief. It will not stay. God batters at its sails.

He is not a lover who does not love forever.

He was a wise man who originated the idea of God.

Human misery must somewhere have a stop; there is no wind that always blows a storm.

I would prefer as friend a good man ignorant than one more clever who is evil too.

Impudence is the worst of all human diseases.

It’s not beauty but fine qualities, my girl, that keep a husband.

Leave no stone unturned.

Life has no blessing like a prudent friend.

New faces have more authority than accustomed ones.

Nothing has more strength than dire necessity.

One loyal friend is worth ten thousand relatives.

Question everything. Learn something. Answer nothing.

Silence is true wisdom’s best reply.

Slight not what’s near through aiming at what’s far.

Some wisdom you must learn from one who’s wise.

Talk sense to a fool and he calls you foolish.

Ten soldiers wisely led will beat a hundred without a head.

The best and safest thing is to keep a balance in your life, acknowledge the great powers around us and in us. If you can do that, and live that way, you are really a wise man.

The best of seers is he who guesses well.

The good and the wise lead quiet lives.

The lucky person passes for a genius.

The wisest men follow their own direction.

This is slavery, not to speak one’s thought.

Those whom God wishes to destroy, he first makes angry.

To a father growing old, nothing is dearer than a daughter.

‘Twas but my tongue, ’twas not my soul that swore.

Waste not fresh tears over old griefs.

Whoso neglects learning in his youth, loses the past and is dead for the future.